Flames of the Phoenix
by LadyA.R.R.O
Summary: Present Day Time: Family gone up in flames, the docile young Kagome must learn to live with the pain of her past and move on if she ever hopes to lead a normal life. But the realms of demons refuse to be silenced when the Shikon Jewel is reactivated thanks to the flames of the phoenix and it's up to a mysterious dog Hanyou to protect a very human Kagome. (Sex, gore, blood, ect. M)
1. The Phoenix That Did Not Rise

Summary: With no family left after a strangely tragic accident, Kagome is sent to live in a huge mansion while the preliminaries of a new temple home for herself are completed. What she doesn't realize is the man that lives there, isn't entirely a man. Dreams mix with reality, and tragedies blend into something better as Kagome learns to live with the horrors of her life and move onto something better. But when Kagome finds out that her family's fire accident isn't so much of an accident, she becomes hell bent on making right the wrong done to her, even if it means permanently pushing away the man of this mansion she had begun to love.

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Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters. I do however own this story line and the created characters in here. Please don't plagiarize and this is a blanket disclaimer.

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**Chapter 1**  
The Phoenix That Did Not Rise

_"For the Phoenix fell one day,  
such a brilliant death in all the colors of life herself,  
but she, for all her myths and claims.  
Did not rise again as all had hoped.  
For it wasn't was a physical nature that she died.  
But of a broken heart."**  
**_

By: LadyA.R.R.O.

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~The call by some strange anonymous man who had requested Kagome Higurashi's presence only a week after the fire that ravaged her temple home was, at best, eerily strange. She knew her family home and the plot of land it had occupied was owned by some big shot multimillionaire somewhere in the US, but for as long as the young eighteen year could remember, she'd never met the owner.

~That was why the barely out of high school teenager with striking black hair and tempest blue-gray eyes rode the bullet train to a sky scraping business building in downtown Tokyo early that morning. Before the sun had even rose, Kagome had packed together the remaining belongings she'd owned and boarded the train at the small depot just outside of an outlying Tokyo prefecture. As she took her seat she thrummed her untrimmed fingernails on the white, medium-sized box of her salvaged belongings, really the only things left to remind her of her now deceased family. There were a few charred photographs, some saved heirlooms, some salvaged documents, and a pearl necklace dirtied by smoke and ash that her mother had been meaning to give to her when she got married. But none of that mattered now, these trinkets, pictures, and papers were simply small remembrances of a life she'd lived before everything was stripped from her.

~As the train came to a screeching halt in Tokyo's Bushido District, Kagome gathered her bright yellow school backpack that carried what was left of her clothing, and her box of reminders, disembarking with an expression of dulled numbness.

~She pulled out a piece of scratch paper from the pocket of her blue jeans, and while balancing her armload of on her knee, she looked up her destination's address before hailing a cab. She climbed into the first dark green with splashes of yellow vehicle that pulled up and mumbled the destination to the driver. As the car began to move, Kagome leaned back against the head rest and stared mutely out the window at the brightly lit, neon lights of darkening Tokyo. Night was coming on fast as the sun fell behind Mt. Fuji and emblazoned the mountains outline in a brilliance of golds and reds.

~Tokyo was as much of a bustling city during the later night hours as it was during the day, and the thousands of sights to see would have normally intrigued the young woman. But Kagome could seem to muster up the interest it took to even pay attention. She dully watched signs and store fronts blur by, not really registering anything or comprehending the people or places that came into view.

~Somewhere in her empty mind, she heard the cab driver attempt to start a cordial conversation. He was nice enough, but Kagome didn't feel the moral obligation to answer as she would have more than a week ago. All of his questions, his civil comments, or stuttered compliments about her eyes or clothes went on deaf ears and the man finally fell quiet, grumbling about the rudeness of kids now days.

~Vaguely Kagome told herself to keep calm and smother the rising feelings of depression and sadness that threatened to come pouring down her cheeks. She had realized only a day after the fire, upon returning to her burned down home and seeing the useless firefighters trampling through what remained of her life, and the police officers who could do nothing but talk about the Yomiuri Giants' next game, that though her own life had come to a screeching halt, everyone else's kept going. At times, the callous disregard by everyone around her, including her friends who tried their hardest to be obliging to a broken down Kagome, was infuriating, at others it was only depressing. The only way Kagome had found so far to cope was to cry in silence and numb herself to the pain by retreating inside her mind to block out that everyone else was fine while she was tearing apart at the seams and spiraling out of control.

~The taxi stopped at the front of Inu Taisho Inc. and Kagome climbed out without the help of her now muted driver. When she'd paid, plus a small tip, the muttering man sped off in search of a more friendly fair, leaving the young woman in the quiet of a seemingly closed down for the day business district.

~Kagome wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting when she arrived here, but it most definitely wasn't this. The Inu Taisho Inc. building itself climbed higher and higher into the low hanging clouds above, towering many stories over other buildings that neighbored it. Most of the surface was covered in sun reflecting glass, which while the light was low seemed to only reflect the last rays of pretty sunlight at the top as the shadow of night swiftly crawled up its windows and towards the summit top, snuffing out the last bit of daylight.

~Night had settled all over Japan and a touch of the cold weather forced an unprepared Kagome to shiver, her teeth chattering almost violently. She looked towards the building's entrance as a wave of floundering confusion triggered in her bogged down brain. The entrance looked dimly lit, and the windowed forum gave a clear viewed indication of an empty lobby.

~The young woman scrounged around again in her pocket for the scratch paper and in a near panic, glanced at the time written down by her friend, Yuka's mother. The pretty, neatly written handwriting read for six, but gave no determination as to morning or evening time. Yuka's mother, Rukia had sworn it was at night. That was why Kagome had spent nearly all day traveling to get here. She almost smacked herself for not having been the one to take the call, but with how depressed she'd been the day before, clutching almost frantically to a scorched family picture taken two years prior on a family vacation, Kagome just didn't have the wherewithal to take down the message.

~But just as the young woman felt the rising panic begin to drown her, "Miss Higurashi?"

~The teenager spun on heel and dropped her belongings in startled terror. Papers, pictures, and things all tumbled out and in that moment… that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Kagome slipped to the sidewalk as tears filler her eyes and she broke down into a bawling mess.

~"I'm glad you found the office without any difficulties," the white haired young man said, handing Kagome a cup of ginseng tea to calm her battled nerves. "When you did not arrive this morning, I had a feeling the times had gotten mixed up and that you were simply, abhorrently late." He approved her mumbled appreciation with a light nod and took a seat directly across from her behind the red oak desk. He carefully looked through some paperwork to his left, fanning out the pages in front of the woman, each one looking more formal than the next.

~"W-what are these?" She whispered, setting her cup down beside her hand and pulling a sheet of paper closer to her for better inspection. There were long words and terms that progressively became more and more complicated as the seemingly legal document continued on, and in the end Kagome pushed it away to clear her jumbled thoughts.

~"They are legal documents pertaining to your grandfather's and mother's last wills and testaments." The man who had formally addressed himself as Mr. Tama Bakeneko, receiving a sideways glance from Kagome, who quickly brushed it off, felt a small stab of pain go through her heart at the thought of her mother's and grandfather's wills being read to her. This was like the last proverbial nail being driven into their coffins, solidifying the fact that they were no longer around or there for her and she wouldn't be able to ever call on them again for help.

~Kagome's eyes teared up, glistening in the light from Mr. Tama's overhead lamps. "What do they say?" She asked, steeling herself for the answer.

~"Everything they owned was to be passed down to the remaining living relation. Which is this sad case, is you Miss Higurashi."

~A tear leaked out from the corner of her left eye and dribbled down her cheek and settled itself on her jawline, "b-b-but there's n-n-nothing left." She whispered, wiping the wetness away.

~Mr. Tama wasn't in the least bit phased by her emotional state and continued on, his deep brown eyes glancing back and forth between the different pieces of paperwork. "This, I understand. The insurance on the temple and home give no monetary payout, but it does have a rebuild clause. But…" He pulled out another piece of paper and passed it across the desk in front of her, "it appears that your family did not own the land it was sitting on."

~"No," Kagome sniffled and brushed away more tears, "our landlord, a Mr. Inuyasha Taisho did. Isn't that why I'm here? He's evicting me and my family's rights to the temple since the temple's now gone?"

~"No, Miss Higurashi. Your presence here today was for my employer, your landlord to come to a consensus." More paper shuffling was heard while Kagome pulled a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe away her tears. "He has insisted upon rebuilding the temple. Something, I myself, happen to agree with. Although, there are several stipulations to the temple's reconstruction."

~"I-I have no money, Mr. Bakeneko. –"

~"You may call me, Tama-san."

~"Tama-san, I don't have any money to rebuild my home."

~"No, I do not suspect someone of your youth and lineage to have the funds readily available for that kind of an undertaking." He seemed to have insulted her, but Kagome couldn't see I Mr. Tama's eyes that his words were said in a malicious way and so she brushed off the comment. "But my employer, however, does." He opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a pen.

~"Miss Higurashi, I realize how difficult a time you must be in currently. With your family gone and yourself experiencing this kind of a tragedy, I understand you must feel lost and alone, but there is light at the end of this dreary tunnel…"

~The more this man spoke, the less Kagome liked him. He was as emotionally inept as a dead corpse, though he looked like some movie star with his breathtaking appeal, glittering brown eyes with flecks of gold at the center, and his unnatural, perfectly straight, shimmering white hair. For all intensive purposes, Mr. Tama Bakeneko was perfect; tall and muscular in all the right spots and had an aura about him that just sucked an onlooker in. It was too bad Kagome didn't find herself as encumbered.

~"…Taisho has agreed to it, if you'll only sign this contract."

~Kagome came back to reality and realized she'd missed Mr. Tama's entire conversation. She didn't have any idea what he was talking about or to what end she would go towards now, but the handsome man was holding out the pen and expectantly waiting for her to take it. He almost seemed bored with this turn of events and was ready to make his leave of this place and Kagome's presence.

~Without thinking about it, and honestly forgetting to care, Kagome snatched up the pen and signed on the dotted line, tossing the pen across the desk and getting to her feet. She needed to catch the last train to the Nara Prefecture before eight thirty, and by the illuminated clock on the wall just behind the well dressed, business suited man, she noticed it was all ready eight o'five.

~Mr. Tama rose with her, gathering up his papers and setting them neatly into his briefcase, taking a much slower pace than he had when he'd pulled them out. In his pocket, both people heard a phone go off. It wasn't some musical tone like what Kagome had heard from most of her high school friends, or even the one her little brother Sota had on his. This call was a series of three beeps, that repeat only twice before the call was answered.

~"Mr. Taisho, how are you this evening?" He picked up his briefcase and signaled for Kagome to head towards the door. "I will meet you outside in four minutes," he deduced and shooed her off before she could answer.

~It wasn't that Kagome needed him to lead her to the entrance, she knew how to get there. It was a simple almost endless elevator trip to the ground floor to which she would then hail another cab and use the remaining money she had left to her name to hail a cab and get on the last train. It was the almost rude indifference this man had towards her, that disallowed her from actually liking this man. From the second she met him less than an hour and a half prior, she didn't like him.

~"She signed the contract, Mr. Taisho." There was a pause as Kagome reached for the door knob and opened it slowly, balancing her backpack on her shoulders and struggled only for a moment with her box. "I will call the limo now, sir, and she will be headed to—" it was all she heard before the door closed. She didn't care about the conversation or that she had hastily just signed a contract she hadn't fully comprehended. She just wanted to get out of here and to get to Yuka's house before morning. Exhaustion was traipsing around her mind and dulling her all ready numbed senses, to a point of making her seem mentally slow and the last thing she wanted was to deal with anymore paperwork tonight.

~The air outside was harsh and crisp on her face as she came to stand on the side walk outside. She breathed in deep, feeling the air chill her lungs and cause a shiver to crawl up her spine. The street outside seemed eerily quiet, even as earlier it was still bustling with those trying to get home after a long day at work. There weren't any passing taxis that she could see, and she assumed she would have to walk a few blocks to find someone who would pick her up.

~Steeling herself against the cold that felt chillier by the second Kagome start traipsing her way up the street, looking more like a well done up bum, or a just fire secretary than a young woman without a clear way to go in life.

~She hazily heard a car come to stop some paces off behind her, but she ignored it, thinking it to be the "limo" of which Mr. Tama had been speaking to Mr. Taisho about on the phone. But when someone called out to her, she turned to look at who knew her name.

~The man was obviously the limo driver, a small framed man with a gentle smile and pleasant demeanor about him. He was someone Kagome instantly knew she would like. He seemed plain, with short black hair that was hidden beneath a black driver's hat, and a pair of smiling eyes the color of wood. Everything about him was inviting and warm and he came striding rather quickly around the front of the limo to the back passenger side and beckoned to the young woman happily.

~"Please, Miss Higurashi. It's rather cold outside and I have been informed to take you to your home." The man wore a black suit and matching colored, black leather gloves. He was shorter than Tama was, but had almost the same underlying muscular build and a stark difference in quiet mannerisms than Tama. Kagome couldn't help but be drawn in and she cautiously went over to the man.

~"You're taking me home?" She asked and the man nodded, reaching for her box to gently take it from her, but Kagome jerked and pulled back. "I-I'm sorry. I don't want anyone to touch this but me," she apologized quickly and looked towards the asphalt.

~"It's all right, Miss Higurashi. I completely understand." He helped her in, even though she said she could do it herself and told her his name was Ako, which she could just call him Ko for short. He waited beside the closed limo door for about another minute when Kagome saw Mr. Tama come out of the office building as well and opened the door for the man as well.

~Mr. Tama didn't feel the same apprehension of climbing into the limo that his female counterpart had, promptly as the car door was closed, Ko swiftly went to the driver's side and climbed in himself, moving the limo into gear and pulling away from the sidewalk.

~There was a long few moments where neither Kagome nor Tama spoke, her fidgeting with the yellow strap of her backpack on the seat beside her, while Tama was texting something on his expensive looking phone. When he finished he put the phone back into his white slack suit pocket and looked up at the young woman.

~"You're taking me to the train station right?" Kagome asked, slightly hesitant.

~"Why would you take the train? It's far longer a trip," Tama replied.

~"It's the only way I know of to get home," she answered, getting the feeling that this man was beginning to think she was stupid.

~"There are many ways to travel, Miss Higurashi. The train is simply one of them." They again fell into disquieted silence and Kagome, unsure of what was going to happen next leaned back into the comfortable, warmed limo seats and felt her eye lids begin to droop. In the next moment she was asleep and amidst her sleep she began to dream…

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Author's Note: R&R. Thank you!


	2. The Smoldering Ashes

**Chapter 2**  
The Smoldering Ashes

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_"The phoenix hope,_  
_can wing her way through the desert skies,_  
_and still defying fortune's spite;_  
_revive from **ashes** and rise."_

-Miguel De Cervantes

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~Kagome felt the rays of sunlight before she saw them and grumbling she turned away from the light, pulling her blanket high up over her head to drown out the annoyance of morning. If the sun was an irritation to her, it meant she was still alive. If she was still alive, it meant she was still stuck in this nightmarish reality of depression and loneliness. And shed all ready spent enough mornings waking up thinking all of this tragedy was just a dream, a bad joke her mind was playing on her while she slept.

~Minutes ticked by as Kagome imagined it had been hours. She struggled to find a comfortable position, spun underneath the blanket over and over again, but to no avail and in the end the obsidian headed woman flung back the blankets and threw herself out of bed. She placed her feet on the plush white floor and almost had to do a double-take at her surroundings. This wasn't Yuka's house, it wasn't her own bedroom either and for the life of her she couldn't remember how she had gotten here in the first place. She scratched her unruly head of hair, lightly smoothing it out and running her tongue over the fuzzy sweaters that had formed on her teeth during the long night. But none of that really mattered until she figured out exactly where she was. Everything else could wait.

~The room she was occupying was large, larger than most rooms she had ever seen before. The windows were dressed in two sets of drapes, a thin inner material the color of the milky-way that glittered and shimmered in the pouring sunlight that cascaded through the clean glass. The outer layers of drapes were also white and of a thicker material that still allowed sunlight to pour in but dimmed it only slightly, casting the rest of the lavishly dolled up room in a gentle glow. Carpets, matching the drapes were a cream color and thick enough to cushion even a bad fall in a pillow of luxury. The bed was a ornately woven with rod iron, dressed up in curls and curves resembling ivy and leaves. And besides a large boudoir with a mirror and attached chest, there were pictures set in gold frames that only added to the fairytale beauty of this overly dressed room.

~"Where the heck am I?" She murmured, more to herself than anyone else, but it seemed that someone heard and answered.

~"You're in the Inu Taisho mansion, Lady Kagome." The voice startled the young woman and she stumbled off the bed, testing just how soft the floor really was. She paled as she looked up into the older, silver gaze of a man that looked to be about sixty and dressed in one of the most ridiculous butler outfits Kagome had ever seen. But he seemed harmless, even if his eyes held a kind of stony hardness that bespoke of battles and bottled emotions.

~"W-who are you?" She breathed out, climbing to her feet and running her fingers over the silken silver pajamas she had no idea how she had gotten into.

~"My master calls me Giant Mute. But you may call me, Gin." He held out a white gloved hand that seemed almost as long as his body, fully stretched, and handed her a pretty, yellow summer dress lightly patterned with wild roses on vines. "Lady Kagome, I took the liberty of picking out your clothes for the day, and I hope you do not mind taking your breakfast on the veranda."

~Lacking the ability to speak, Kagome grabbed the dress with more force than was necessary and nodded her head wordlessly. She watched the tall man slowly make his way towards the bedroom door. He was bald and branded into the back of his bare head just upon the crest of his skull was a strange kanji symbol, one Kagome couldn't place. It seemed like she'd seen it before, but couldn't remember where or from how long ago.

~The door clicked quietly shut and as if the play button on a VCR had been suddenly pushed, Kagome flew into action, stripping down to her panties and bra and climbed into the dress that fit her body almost to perfection.

~She caught he reflection in the boudoir's mirror and noticed something akin to sparked wonder twinkling in her eyes. The dress was beautifully made, hand stitched, and tailored with the utmost care, and for a split second Kagome debated taking it off so as not to mar the excellence with her dreary, tarnished self. She was pale; paler than was normal for her and her hair wasn't as brilliant black as it had been only a fleeting time ago. The dress may have fit, but it didn't mean she looked good in it. It just meant it fit.

~Kagome slowly pulled herself away from the mirror and made her way cautiously towards the door, fearing that if she moved too quickly that all of this dream world she'd suddenly awoken to would fall away and leave behind the same feelings she had felt morning after morning since the accident. There was a brief moment of uncertainty, where the young woman wondered if all of this strangeness really _was_ a dream. Maybe the night before she had killed herself and this was a place of nirvana, where she could feel no pain and her family would be drinking tea and eating breakfast on the porch.

~Pinching herself just to check, Kagome found that it did in fact hurt, and though she felt more numb and floaty than she had the day before, she still felt heartache towards a family gone and taken from her. This wasn't a dream, but if it wasn't, than she wondered with cagey uncertainty where exactly this place was and why she was here.

~She closed her borrowed bedroom door behind her and glided down the long, well-lit corridor in her bare feet. She passed by door after door of closed rooms, or so she assumed as they too were all closed, admiring the tables sprinkled every now and then along the wall with trinkets that looked valuable and unused. There were pictures of people she didn't know, and older paintings of others, giving her no clear indication of anything other than what the man named Gin had told her. She was in the Inu Taisho mansion, a house she'd never been to, yet had heard of when her mother talked only very briefly upon the landlords and their family history, while they lived further up the mountain of the land her family's temple occupied.

~From her mother's stories, the girl remembered a feudal past full of demons, Hanyous, and Youkai. Where wars were wrought and humans battled back creatures that seemed to never die. About how some men and woman streamed through the years never aging, looking as beautiful and wondrous as the day they came into maturity. Some people felt that, even in modern times, they still had demon's blood coursing through their veins and the reason for temples like Kagome's grandfather's was to keep at bay the raging demons, and to keep tranquility in a time of great peace. That was why the Taisho family had allowed her great-great-great-great grandmother to build the temple. That was why all the generations of Higurashis had one child they pushed forward to take on the role of priest or priestess. They had to keep safe the balance of life itself.

~Kagome brushed away the older memories as she came to a large forum, adorned in the same lavish designs that resembled a sense of tranquility and silence, much like the surrounding forest that blanketed the Taisho Mountain. She took the grand staircase carved out of marble to the entrance-way floor and glanced off towards what appeared to be the front door, moving her gaze to the hallway behind the stairs and found a way leading towards the kitchen.

~Without a thought in her head, she strode towards the hall and into the long, well-stocked and clean kitchen. She didn't quite take in anything and reached out for the screen door that led into what she assumed was the back porch, spying endless greenery and a table stocked with all the makings of breakfast.

~"Ah, Lady Kagome. You found your way. I had hoped you wouldn't get lost." Gin was pouring orange juice into a glass cup for her and pointed to a pair of outside slippers beside the patio's porch. He watched with attentive eyes as she put the shoes on and padded quietly towards him. He pulled out the wicker chair as any professionally paid gentleman would for a lady and gave her gentle grin to show he was harmless to her, even though he was a toweringly tall man.

~"I apologize that I didn't ask you how you wanted your eggs or toast. I will make sure to do so for your breakfast tomorrow." He pulled the cover off her plate to reveal fluffy scrambled eggs, a slice of bacon and link of sausage, a pancake, and a smaller dish of buttered white toast directly at its side. When he noted Kagome's aghast look of surprise, he smiled if only slightly and bowed low before taking his leave to the kitchen.

~"Excuse me!" Kagome called, "I don't know… I mean, am I allowed?" Again, her voice and intelligence failed her. This was all strange and overwhelming. She may have known the location of her strange surroundings, but she didn't comprehend how or why.

~"Of course, Lady Kagome. You are allowed every luxury. Please do not hesitate to ask." He disappeared again without another word, leaving his charge to muted silence by herself.

~She looked back to her immaculate plate and picked up what she assumed to be a polished, solid silver fork and poked subjectively at the food as if it would suddenly grow legs and walk away. Even with the green light to eat it, the plate simply looked too pretty to ruin, and Kagome found herself not hungry as a growing curiosity to explore this new place was beginning to take over.

~A few moments ticked by, uneventful and boring, until the woman finally gathered up the gumption to climb to her feet and leave the beautifully set breakfast table behind. She strode along the stone balcony that sat a good ten feet above the grassy veranda, with carved stone steps that led into a basic, lush green yard. There weren't any flowers here, no gardens, no shrub mazes one might assume to be on the land of the insanely wealthy, just a back drop of thick, green grass that cut off at the beginning of a dense tree line leading into the forest. She couldn't see beyond the treeline.

~It was quiet without the annoying sounds of the city that could be seen down the mountain side from here. Not a car horn could be heard and no chattering girls and boys coming down the street from the high school. This place was coolly untouched by anyone that didn't belong here, and was kept immaculately so by whatever laws of nature this place seemed to stem from.

~"Beautiful," she whispered, feeling layer upon layer of her sadness, her loneliness, her depression all slipping away, never to return. She could get used to a place like this. It was faultless. Perfect.

~"Good morning, Miss Higurashi." The voice from the night before splintered her thoughts and shattered the serenity Kagome had felt only seconds ago. She turned towards Mr. Tama, the rampage of yesterday's discussion coming back to her in waves.

~"Morning," the girl said with fake good nature. She even tried for a smile, but failed miserably and it came out like a pained grimace, a reflection of the inner turmoil she felt daily. "I didn't think you would be here." She noted that Mr. Tama was wearing a man's bathrobe and looked as if he'd just stalked out of the shower. His long white hair that came close to his shoulder blades was clean and still wet, shimmering brilliantly in the light from the sun that hung in the backdrop of a cloudless sky. He pulled out a wicker chair for himself and pulled off the silver top to his own meal and began to eat heartily, a stark difference to how Kagome had assumed someone who looked as Mr. Tama, would eat.

~Coming to stand beside her chair, Kagome laid a hand on the hand rest and looked the intruding man in the eyes. "Could you tell me why I'm here? I thought I would be going back to my friend Yuka's."

~Without missing a beat, Mr. Tama swallowed while his eyes smiled up at her. He looked like a cat playing with a mouse, it was wholly unnerving. "The contract you signed. Don't you remember?"

~"Explain it to me again. I must've been hazy last night." She had been, but for a reason she could only place as immense grief for the loss of her family and the uncomfortable way this man continued to stare at her.

~"In order for the Taisho company to put faith in the Higurashi family again, you must acquiesce to live here in this mansion for two years. At which time, the clean-up of the temple, the cleansing of the land, and the deaths of your family will then have been rendered to the sands of time. You will then be allowed to take over all the duties as one would carry on as a _priestess_." He spoke that final word with more emotion, giving a kind of balking emphasis on it that made Kagome's skin crawl. This man didn't believe in the stories, had either no inclination to or simply didn't approve of fairytales.

~"Why would the company need to put faith back into my family?" Kagome felt a heated blush of anger rising in her neck, making its way to her ears and cheeks. "The fire wasn't intentional. It was an accident caused by a tipped lamp in the temple's stand room."

~"Was it?" Mr. Tama asked, but it sounded more like an accusation.

~"What do you mean by that?!" Kagome angrily shouted, the blush rising full force in her face. She wanted so badly to hit this man and send him reeling feet over head, but she reigned in the rage and took a seat across from Tama and glared at him.

~"I simply mean that. Your temple has gone for generations without a single problem. And suddenly, when most of the funding for your temple was taken and put to other things, it goes up in flames. It sounds to me as if anger got the better of someone in your family, and from your reaction moments ago, I see it runs in the family."

~Kagome balled her fists in her lap, resisting the urge to climb over the table and smash Tama's plate over his head as a reel of other thoughts and scenarios stream-lined through her mind. She spoke to him through gritted teeth and leaned closer, setting her blazing, tempest eyes upon him, "you would do well to not speak or assume poorly of my family. They are dead now and are deserving of respect." She hauled herself quickly to her feet and made like she was going to turn towards the house, to get away from this infuriating man she thought appeared more like a Cheshire Cat ready to pounce on dinner, but Tama snatched up her arm.

~He yanked her to him, grabbing her chin with his other hand and forcing her to bend until she was perfectly eye-level with him, "how curious that the daughter of the Higurashi family is the sole survivor of such a cataclysm. It's odd don't you think?"

~Kagome ripped herself out of Tama's grip, his touch like a searing brand on her skin. He smelled like very male cologne and something else, something very sinister and she didn't like either. "I don't like you," she growled.

~"Contrary to _your_ opinion, Kagome. I _like_ you," he almost hissed, "I like you and your spunk very much." He blinked and for a split second, Kagome was sure she saw his eyes change in both shape and color. She stumbled back, tripped over her own legs, and was sent careening to the stone ground. As she sat there dumbfounded, she barely registered the kind hands of Gin coming to grasp her and gently guide her back inside. She continued to keep looking back at Tama, but his eyes were normal again and he was now sipping tea and staring at her with a quirked eyebrow and cocky grin.

~"Gin!" Kagome said flabbergasted as she was directed into a sun lit drawing room made most likely for family gatherings as there was no television, and only a piano at one corner and a pool table located at another. "H-h-he…" she couldn't finish without sounding crazy, "his eyes!" She blurted out.

~"Lady Kagome, you must calm down. It is not good for your health to take a fall like that and get your blood pressure up."

~"I fell because of what I saw!" She was trying to shoo away Gin's searching hands that tried to grab her wrist to take her pulse. "He had eyes like a cat, they turned from brown to gold and slitted! I'm not crazy!"

~Gin stared at the woman like she had gone mental, genuine concern growing in his eyes and he took off one glove to touch the woman's forehead. Her temperature seemed normal, even though the red blush in her face said otherwise.

~"Lady Kagome, I hope you realize how absurd that sounds."

~"It's true!" She shrieked, a coldness growing in the pit of her gut. It did sound crazy, even to her and she was the one saying it. "His eyes changed colors and then went back to brown."

~Gin knelt down in front of the young woman, thinking the lowered height would make him seem less menacing. He took the girl's hand and patted it gently, "Lady Kagome, I hope you will forgive me for saying this, but your mind is not exactly in the right frame. Perhaps you should rest some and I will bring you some soothing mint tea."

~A cooling calm overcame the teenager then, something cloudy entered her mind and dulled the senses and panicked frenzy. She became composed and collected, so much so that she couldn't even nod her head in agreement for the mint drink. She just dully glanced out of her own skull at Gin and wondered why her jumbled thoughts were suddenly so relaxed, and her panic so assuaged.

~"I will go get it now, please remain here," Gin asked and had Kagome the energy, she might have denied him and tried to shake the man to get him to see and understand. But she didn't and as the butler left to fetch his shattered nerve remedy, Kagome lolled her head to the side to glance out the side window with disinterest.

~A courageous swallow came to land on the windowsill, only a few feet from her. He danced on his tiny two feet, hopping from one side to the other, bobbing his head and looking out at Kagome with his beady black eyes. He chirped twice, curiously watching her with wary vigilance, but when he found her to be harmless, he began to pick at the seed laid out for him in the hanging birdfeeder.

~He fluttered around the feeder, the sound of his small wings bustling happily back and forth while he filled his gut. All the while, Kagome just watched in fascination, something akin to wonder growing in her mind. She had seen many swallows in her life, known them to be timid and gentle until provoked. She had watched a small family of them live in the tree outside her temple home, out in the safe haven branches of the Goshinboku. They had nested there after a heavy rainstorm and because of the protection the tree had offered, they had built a small nest with four eggs in it.

~Kagome remembered vividly finding the nest during one of her tree climbing sessions and poking around inside it until the mother came out all fire and brimstone, knocking the young girl from her perch and sending her careening to the ground. She had hit a branch hard on the way down, snapping her arm and causing her mind to blacken. When she awoke in the hospital her mother fawned all over her and the doctor warned that the fall could have been much worse if something hadn't cushioned her descent. For years, she had thought it to be the Goshinboku's soft roots and had looked up to the tree like some watchful guardian over herself and her brother while they played under its branches.

~Thinking about the tree caused the stabbing pain in her heart to begin again, forcing the ache to build until she couldn't breathe. The pain of loss was clutching her, clawing at her insides, and pushing away the fog of disillusioned tranquility with all the force of a rabid dog.

~Kagome seized her chest with her hands, the inability to breathe clamping down on her windpipe like hands encircling her throat, ready to choke the very life from her. She leaned forward, hoping to assuage the ache, but it continued and the thoughts of listening to her family burning in that fire swirled around in her mind.

~_"Where were you!?"_ The imagined face of her brother screamed as the flames licked up his body, taking flesh and muscle and burning bone. Soon he was nothing more than a corpse of melted tissues the color of obsidian, it pooled around Kagome's mind, darkening her spirit and grasping tight to her soul. _"Where were you!?"_ His disentangled voice continued to shriek and Kagome pounded at her skull as the tears freefell now.

~"I-I was at Ayumi's! We were talking about college!" Her hands came up to fist in her hair, pulling at it as she hoped that the physical pain would drown out the emotional, but to no avail.

~_"Mother cried for you!"_ Sota was yelling, the black puddle that was engulfing her feet was crawling up her body now, blackening her body and her mind. _"Can't you hear her voice now, Kagome? Hear her screaming for you?"_ Her mother's soft, bemused wail grated over Kagome's senses until she felt dumb and stupid.

~"No! Please! Stop!" She banged at her temples, praying with everything she had to make it stop and suddenly in her mind, she saw her mother's burning body. The woman came towards her crying and screaming, an arm outstretched to reach out her pained daughter. Her hand touched the girl's cheek and the heat from the flames raced down her mother's appendage and set Kagome's own body aflame.

~The pain became tremendous now as she felt her flesh melting and burning, searing her face, neck, and chest. It was becoming unbearable, making it hard to breathe. "I'm so sorry, momma." She was saying, rocking in her seat and clutching to her head. "I'm so, so sorry, momma."

~"Lady Kagome?" Gin's voice sliced through the pain like a sharp knife to butter and the young woman looked up with her red swollen eyes from crying. She looked startled and terrified, but the pain had gone now, leaving only the dulling ache that she constantly felt behind.

~"Gin," she whispered breathlessly, hands falling away from her rat's nest of hair and came to rest limply in her yellow dressed lap.

~"Are you all right, dear girl?" He carried a silver tray of cups, a tea basin, sugar, cream, and honey over to her and set it on the table beside her.

~Kagome looked around, startled. All she saw was the quiet, warm drawing room Gin had placed her in only a few minutes before, except now the swallow bird was gone, frightened off by Kagome's near mental breakdown. "I-I'm fine," she assured and actually gave a forced smile, succeeding just barely enough to suffice the butler.

~"Would you like honey or sugar in you tea?" He asked, instantly seeming to forget about Kagome's mad incident he'd walked in on moments ago.

~"Honey, please."

~"Good, it will help calm your thoughts, Lady Kagome." He handed her the cup of steaming liquid and Kagome gratefully took it.

~"Gin, you don't have to call me Lady Kagome. Kagome is just fine." She smiled up at him again, "my brother used to call me Kags sometimes too."

~The older gentleman looked down warily at his charge to see if she would have a problem remembering the family member that she spoke about with such sisterly affection, but he saw only a dimmed bit of sadness hiding in her blue-gray eyes. "He seems like he was a good brother."

~"Yeah," she murmured, taking a sip of her tea, "the best kind. He was about seven years younger than I was. He played soccer and video games, but he was the best listener."

~"You must miss him a lot," the man affirmed and Kagome nodded.

~"No one to annoy me now. Mamma isn't there to listen to me either and no Grandpa to tell me to clean the temple." She swirled her tea lightly, "I miss cleaning the temple and reading underneath the Goshinboku. Do you think…" She looked up suddenly with glimmering blue eyes that sparkled with pleading interest, "do you think I could go down to where the temple was and sit under the tree for awhile? It might help me feel better."

~Gin for the life of him couldn't understand why the girl who had gone through so much pain and heartache at the loss of her family would even think about stepping foot on the ground where they perished, but in a way he understood. He still visited his late wife's grave site every once in awhile, and knew of the Goshinboku tree of which Kagome spoke. His master had spent many a days and nights in that tree, just sitting in there, watching and feeling the serenity of the tree's aged life-force sink into him. It was a tree of healing, that much the butler knew.

~"I would have to confirm it with my master, Lady Kagome."

~She looked down for a moment, but gave the man a sad smile and leaned back against the back of the chair as she finished drinking her tea, looking out the window for the return of her swallow friend.

~Gin took his leave of her then, feeling the young woman was contented enough and her mind had been appeased enough to leave her in peace for the moment. It meant nothing about tonight and Gin had a feeling that there would be many a nights he would drag himself out of bed to calm the night terrors brought on by the girl's broken and tattered mind.

~He made his way out to the forum and climbed the grand staircase steps, turning down the right corridor and making his way towards the more forbidden side of the house to call upon a master who liked his privacy.

~This hallway wasn't as nicely kept as the other rooms and places of the grand house. Things were dirty and dusty from lack of cleaning, and several objects on the tables down the halls were broken or thrown from their perches in what appeared to be fits of rage.

~Gin came to stand at an especially tattered door way, riddled with claw gashes and teeth marks. It seemed the very angers of hell had been visited upon this threshold and as the man raised a hand to knock, he heard the clear voice on the other side speak before the butler's knuckles even touched the splintered wood.

~"Come in, Giant Mute. Whaddya want?"

~Gin opened the door and shuddered violently when the hinges on the door nearly gave way and threatened to break apart. "Master, you really should allow me to fix your door."

~"Why fix the damn door?" The man that sat huddled in his dirty, cluttered room was holding his knees and leaning against the large back of his desk chair. "I'm just going to break it again."

~Gin stepped over an empty ramen cup and practically crawled out of his own skin when his master's dirty laundry pile almost moved of its own accord somewhere off beside his unmade bed. "Because humans actually use the door, Master."

~"I'm not human!" The man snapped and let his feet down to touch the floor. He wore a pair of dark blue jeans and no shoes, his torso also as bare as his feet. The pale skin shown plainly against the bright glow of the security camera monitors the young man sat in front of. He watched intently as the young woman in the drawing room poured another cup of tea and set the cup down without taking a sip.

~"She's… not doing well," the younger man affirmed.

~"No, Master. She seems to be more broken than we had originally thought. The loss of her family is plainly eating away at her mind."

~The young man finally pulled his gaze away from the screen to look at his faithful manservant whom he'd had longer than he could even remember. Gin had always been there, even from the time of his infancy and before, this man was trustworthy.

~"I can't let her go crazy. She needs to be all right."

~"It isn't always up to you who breaks and who remains whole, Master."

~"I'm the one who does the breaking, she can't break. She's not allowed to."

~Gin felt that continuing this berating argument with his master would get the man nowhere and it seemed the young man was all ready in a foul enough mood due to the state of his room. It looked more tattered and tossed than it had on other occasions. "I will be in to clean your room while you're out at the party tonight, Master."

~"I don't want to go," he glared at Gin hard, his golden eyes set and focused on his gray-eyed butler. He realized that Gin wasn't going to allow him to miss the business party, his half brother would be there and the Taisho company's second in command was expected even if the young man didn't desire to attend.

~Gin smiled, barely showing his very white teeth against the backdrop of his tanned skin. He knew he'd won the stare down match between them and nodded to the master of the house, "I will have your tuxedo ready before five." He bowed to save some of his master's dignity and turned to head for the door, as his hand touched the brass handle he paused and gave the long silver- headed man a sidelong glance.

~"The young lady would like to visit the remains of the Higurashi Shrine. She wishes to sit with the Goshinboku tree. What do you think, my lord?"

~Looking rigidly at Gin, the master of the house sighed heavily, knowing the scene that Kagome was in store for wasn't something he was sure she was ready take in, but he nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, let her get out her… demons." He looked back at a lightly resting Kagome, having not moved from her position in the drawing room. Her eyes were even closed now and she seemed to be sleeping.

~"And tell that prick Tama to get the hell outta my house before lunch."

~Gin chuckled lowly and nodded again, "of course, my lord Inuyasha."

* * *

Author's Note – Oh come on! We all knew who it was! R&R


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